Who still goes to meetings and out in field service?

by SloppyJoe 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  Sparlock the Wizard

  I also continue attending meetings and going to field service, although I do as little as I possibly can without raising any flags from friends or family. My current situation is very similar to Richard_I's.

  It's funny, I had the same thoughts during the "Beware of Apostates" talk during this year's convention; "I wonder if anyone out there is thinking this is a load of BS?" There's got to be others it's just nearly impossible to know...

  @Ding: Personally, the few times I go out to service, I simply hand out a magazine and walk away. I will usually introduce myself, mention I'm a JW and let them know that I have some bible-based info for him/her to read and leave. 99% of people will never ask you anything and if someone tries passing a study onto me, I'll just tell them it's difficult for me to pick it up because of my work/school schedule. Like SloppyJoe mentioned, it does make you feel like crap but I suppose you get somewhat used to it for after a while. You get used to doing the bare minimum and justify staying in for now because the alternative means losing your family and close friends.

  I couldn't bear to bring another person into a group like this, but I'll still get that "you have no idea what you're getting into" feeling when I see that new study going to the meetings and "progressing in the truth."
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  SloppyJoe

  @sparlock we would be superb partners out in service
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  I find it interesting that within a one hour span, two similar topics were started:

  This one about the hardship of have to fake it by going to meetings & FS.

  This one (by What Now?) about the hardships resulting from no longer going to meetings & FS:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/257408/1/Fading-Feeling-Lost-Part-2

  So far, I've failed at trying to "Fake It".

  When meeting time rolls around, I just have no motivation to go.

  Doc
• 

  Comatose

  My fade lasted about 2 months maybe tops. Then we just quit. It was miserable going just for other people and sitting there listening to the indoctrination was like nails on a chalk board. Plus, all the talks now had huge gaping logical fallacies I was noticing. At the memorial hearing that snakes would eat dirt was just mind blowing. Who really believes that?
• 

  whathappened

  I quit cold turkey December 2010. Love my new life. Jw's shun me, but my daughter still lets me come see her as long as I don't bash the Society.

  I look back now and realize now there were a lot of witnesses that were not whole souled. Different ones would make little comments that shocked me at the time, but make sense to me now.

  Look for those who have funny looks on there faces or look miserable. You can hang out with these people, maybe?
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  SloppyJoe

  @whathappened this is actually very good advice. There are A LOT of people who would be considered weak and are fun to hang around. The best part is when you are with them, nothing religious ever comes up in conversation. And even if it does its very light or brief.

  One rule I live by though is if you are going to do anything that could get you in a judicial committee, it cannot be with other witnesses no matter how weak. They squawk the moment they're in trouble.
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  XBEHERE

  I do both and am currently serving as an elder. I pretty much go to meetings and just look at the speaker, pretend that I am listening. I comment once during each meeting so as not to cause suspicion. I also take every chance I get not to go, fake illnesses or working late but that has to be limited.

  As for ministry I also try to "fake it" as much as possible. Fortunately my wife is on board because she doesn't like the ministry so we tend to work as a family, do a couple calls, go to Dunkin Donuts and go home.

  The most difficult part for me is to sit in elders meetings... OMG they are so power hungry, egotistical, and controlling. I have to drift off to a different place so I dont freak out and blurt something "apostate" out.

  I have not chosen an easy path, I am slowly working on my wife for an exit in the hopefully near future.
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  BU2B

  I am currently still a 25 yr old MS and I do both. For the meetings, first of all I miss as many as possible. I dont care about arousing suspicion, because I want to be removed anyways. I fake sick, actually its not faking because I do get a headache when I think about going. I comment maybe once every three meetings, and just sit there and daydream and endure. I often work to rebut whatever is being said, and I. D. any logical fallacies used. Its only twice a week if that. As for Service, I seem to go out about every other or every third Saturday. When I go out, I am lucky that my Cong is kind of lax about FS. We have a huge territory, going from suburban subdivisions to rural farmland. We get to the territory around 10:15 do some D2D which means riding 5 or six to a van and rotating who gets out. When I get out I usually let the other person speak. If I go I try to go alone and not ring the bell, just stand there for 2-3 minutes and then leave. If I am with someone else, I and someone comes to the door, I ID myself as a JW which 99% of the time results in a not interested, and a closed door. If this does not happen I simply say, here is some bible based information that offers a explanation for many of the questions people have today. Then I leave a tract and step off the porch. I dont ask questions or engage the person. Even if you are effective hardly anyone listens, so If you are trying to be intentionally inefecctive like me it always works. I never come back.

  At 11:00 is time for break. At my hall this means a sit down breakfast, waitress, menus the whole 9. We eat for about 45 minutes to a hour, I ride in the van for another half hour riding to other peoples calls that arent home, and then its back to the hall then home. I report around 7 hours a month.

  I do this so I can maintain a status as a JW as this is the most effectgive way to wake the fam up. If I was DF or DA or inactive, any hope of speaking to my wife about religious or JW related matters would be shot to hell.

  My last attempt to plant some seeds failed. I wanted her to watch a documentary I had taped about Mormons, It had so many similarites, I had hoped It would help her think, but she refused to watch it, and said I dont want to know about them. ARRRGGHHH
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  SloppyJoe

  An elder and MS serving, you guys have me trumped by a long shot!
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  tornapart

  SloppyJoe, I do pretty much the same as you although my FS is Rvs that have had the mags for years and I just pass the time of day knowing they'll never progress to anything else. At the same time no one else will bother them as they will say I call on them. I don't do first call. I go to maybe 3 or 4 meetings a month, don't sing, don't comment, don't do talks. I don't like it but same as you I have family that I don't want cut off from me.